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Showing posts from November, 2011

Best Infant Car Seat for Twins - A list for moms pregnant with twins

If you are a mom pregnant with twins, one of the questions you'll be asking yourself is "What is the best infant car seat for twins?" This was a question I agonized over for months while I was pregnant before finally settling on the Chicco Keyfit 30. It looks like this is my week for talking cars and car seats so here's my advise to anyone in the process of buying infant car seats for their twins.

One of the most challenging parts of having 2 or more babies at the same time is figuring out how to transport them from one point to another. I've put together a list of car seats and strollers for parents who have twins or more. The criteria for choosing the infant car seat?

Must have a lower weight limit of 4lbs specified by manufacturer Must have a separate base that stays in the carMust have at least one double stroller that can accomodate 2 of the seats at the same timeInfant Car Seats for Twins Best Bets
Britax B-Safe, Britax Chaperone, Chicco Keyfit, Chicco Keyfit3…
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Cars and SUVs for 2 Infant Car Seats

This post is part of my first year with twins recap. Over the last 12 months, I have had the twins in a variety of cars and suvs. This is how the vehicles I tried out fared with 2 infant seats.

Mazda5 with 2 infant seats installed with base
Rear Seat configuration: 2 rows of captains' chairs
Access to 3rd row: The infant seats had to be removed to access the 3rd row.
In Car Feeding: Required contorting myself, balancing on the armrest and feeding the babies. Not comfortable at all
Comfort of 3rd row: Not comfortable for anyone taller than 5ft
Cargo capacity: Good with the third row down. This is my everyday car and it easily handles one double stroller, one single stroller and a cart full of groceries. With the third row up, it can handle the groceries but not the strollers

Mazda3 with 2 infant seats
Rear Seat configuration: 1 bench row. With infant seats installed, the front seats became uncomfortable for anyone taller than 5'5 (I'm 5'6). Probably could have got that extra i…
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Relocating with Twin Babies - Sleeping Arrangements

Due to my move, I've been living out of a suitcase for over a month now. Relocating with twin babies is not easy but I'm really glad with the sleeping arrangements we have thanks to the Kidco Peapod travel beds.

I got 2 on sale from a USA BAby store closing and I'm really glad I did. They take up minimum floor space in our rented accomodations so I'm able to still co-sleep with the babies. It took the girls a few days to adjust to the new sleeping arrangements but since then, they've been sleeping quite well in the beds. One plus is that it can be zipped so the babies don't roll out in the middle of the night and unzipped in the morning so the girls know the feeling of getting out of bed by themselves.

I think I like the independence it gives them. Now I understand why the Montessorri way is so big on placing mattresses on the floor.

I'm linking up with Julia who's got some chocovine love going on. Not sure what chocovine is? Check out her blog to find …
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Transition to Sippy Cup for Baby

Transitioning to sippy cups for my babies  was in retrospect an event that took 3 months. This post is in response to an anonymous comment on my One Year Old update post asking how I got Spice to finally accept her sippy cup as I had previously posted that she was absolutely refusing the cup. Based on my experience with the two girls, it appears that transitioning to sippy cup for babies is based on physical and emotional readiness.
Physical Readiness This is a function of the cup's ease of use and the baby's gross motor skills and muscular development. The first part of using a sippy is learning to suck out of it with motion that's different from the sucking motion used with bottle. My girls learnt to suck out of a cup by using the Green Sprouts sippy which had no valve in it. We used water at this stage.
Once the girls mastered the sucking as well as the lifting, I switched to the Playtex First Sipster because it was big enough to take 8oz of fluid, it was relatively leak-pr…
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Ways to Save on a First Birthday Party

I'm all for my babies having fabulous birthday parties, but the frugalista in me won't let me spend ridiculous amounts and the utilitarian in me won't let me indulge in any impractical endeavour. So with all that in mind, here are some ideas I had for giving my babies a fabulous but sensible birthday party
Theme colors: I like the idea of a themed party but they can get pretty expensive. My fix, pick colors from a holiday just before the party. That way once the holiday is over and all the nick-nacks are on clearance in the stores, I can buy them for peanuts. This works great for table covers, paper napkins, plates, drinkware and decor. I really love the St Patrick's day greens, the valentine's day reds and the easter pastelsUseful party favors: I much prefer party favors that are educational or useful. A great way to get these is to buy in September once all the back to school items are on sale. Mandy also gave me a great idea of including little books - I've s…
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One Year Old Twins

Well, after all the buildup and anticipation, the day(s) came, we had fun and now it's back to normal. The girls had their birthday on Wednesday wherein they polished off a cupcake each. I've been delaying the stats update because I do not have my weight scale, but can't put that off any more.

SpIce aka Twin A Weight: No idea  but some of the smaller pants are getting snug. I can't wait to do a weight check actually
Dress size: 9 - 12months but still wearing 9m Carters sleepers
Diaper size: Size 3 
Sugar aka Twin B
Weight: See comments for Spice Dress size: 9 - 12 months
Diaper size: Size 3


Feeding Schedule
We now have 2 schedules, one for the weekdays in daycare and one for the weekend. Regardless, the girls are up by 7am and they get 8oz each of whole milk. Spice gets lactose-free milk while Sugar gets 3% homogenized milk.
On weekdays, they get a cereal bar after their milk and off to daycare where they get a morning snack around 9am. The morning snack is usually some fruit …
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Happy Birthday Babies

What can I say without turning into a blubbering fool. I'm more than blessed to be your mom. I'm also highly favored. Wouldn't change the last 12 months for all the gold in wherever-they-store-gold-these-days.




May The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.       May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.
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More Lessons from Twin Parenting

Some moments of motherhood are profound and some are mundane. Here's a list of 10 more mundane lessons that I learnt.
Parenting has to be intentional - I noticed that I rarely focused on the babies 100%. My brain was always racing ahead to my list of things to do. I fed the babies while checking twitter and facebook and my blog reader. Something felt wrong. Were the babies interferring with my internet or was the internet interferring with my mothering?. So I took a telecomms break. For 20 days in January, I didn't use a computer or my phone. Not being able to use those, I was able to redirect my attention solely on the babies and actually enjoy them moment by moment and notice the little things.  Start 'em young - Any habit that will be intolerable in a toddler, don't allow in an infant. This really worked when it came to sleep training. Discipline is not a luxury - It takes discipline to prepare for the night feedings before going to bed, but the reward is I'm no…
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Most Important Lesson in Twin Parenting

I've learnt a lot about being a mother and parenting twins in the last 12 months. It's really been quite a steep learning curve for me; but the most important lesson I learnt about parenting twins took place when my babies were just 4 months old.

At that age, their personalities were already coming out. Spice's was more of what in my native language we call "Old woman's cat" ie. she loooved to cuddle and snuggle. Sugar was however more interested in independent play with things rather than people. So this fateful afternoon, I was home alone with the girls. Spice was snuggled up contentedly with me and Sugar was in her bouncer happily counting her fingers and marvelling that she had so many.

Spice and I had cuddled for 20 minutes and I started to feel bad that Sugar was left out of the one-on-one mommy time. So I put Spice down and picked Sugar up for some cuddling too. Bad call! Very bad call! Both babies got mega-upset and cried - Spice because she wanted to …
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In Memory

When I was pregnant, the 2 blogs that I followed closely were by Megan and Meghan because we all shared the same due date.

Meghan was a cancer survivor pregnant with triplets. She had her triplets in October 2010 and was a proud and devoted mother. Was. She died on the 26th of October, 11 days after her babies' first birthday. She was a fighter till the end and left her babies with a legacy of love.

Here's an excerpt from one of the most touching posts on her blog

I need to vent and here is the only place I feel like I can really let it all out so here it goes...

My thoracic surgeon called and wants to do surgery to remove the tumors on my right side next week. This surgery will be bigger than any I've had in the past and recovery will be rough (his words). I will be in the hospital for a week and recovery time will be 6-8 weeks. TO add to that, he wants to go in and get the tumors on the left side 2-3 weeks after the left side surgery. We can't do it all at once because…
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Birthday Countdown and Numbers

My babies are going to be a year old in another 7 days. Excuse me for a minute. *Hiccups* *Blow nose* * Deep breath* *Steady Heart rate*
Ok, let's start that again.My babies are going to be a year old in another 7 days. I could insert all the time-centered cliches here but I'll spare you. Instead, I'll tell you that I'm celebrating:
18750 ounces of formula *GASP!* 220 ounces of breastmilk - I know, pathetic! 35 feeding bottles 22 pacifiers 14 sippy cups 2 healthy appetites 1 lactose sensitivity 0 allergies
4105 disposable diapers 8 sets of cloth diapers, 6 of which have since found a new home 3 strollers and I have a suspicious feeling this number is going to go up. I suffer from stroller envy at airports and theme parks. Speaking of which...
3079 airmiles per baby 23 nights in hotel rooms 5 flights 4 cities 2 vacations 1 driving ticket (for mommy not the babies) 0 accidents
8 nose-cleaning aka snot-removing appliances 3 episodes of diaper rash 2 scalps covered with cradle cap 1 ear infectio…
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Detangling Brush for Babies - Denman Tangle Tamer

I have just discovered the best detangling brush for my babies hair; it's the Denman Tangle Tamer. After the drama of cradle cap, my girls are growing their little afros back. Their baby curls are gone and the new hair growth is more adult like (Black hair quick tip: The hair texture babies are born with changes over the first year to a more adult texture).

Their adult texture is just like mommy's. Long, kinky and prone to shrinkage. They don't understand all those big words; all they know is that it really hurts when mommy combs their hair. They were crying so much that I started looking for detangling solutions that were suitable for babies. That's when I came across the Denman Tangle Tamer Children's Hair brush. The reviews on Amazon looked good so two clicks later, the brush was on its way.



Verdict: I love this. I use it to brush the girls hair before combing out with an afro comb and it really takes out most of the tangles painlessly so there's a lot less s…
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Post-Antibiotics Baby Food

Spice has been having a horrible time for the last three weeks. It all started with an ear infection that needed a ten day course of antibiotics during which time her appetite dropped quite a bit. Then a few days after finishing the antibiotic course, she took over the diarrea baton from Sugar. My baby was pooping six times a day, totally miserable, clingy and dropped off her eating to barely 10 ounces of formula.

When it seemed like she was losing weight and becoming too lethargic, I decided to follow the pediatrician's advice from the 9 months check up to replace a bottle or two with Pediasure. As a bonus, it turns out that Pediasure is lactose free. (my sister had suggested switching to lactose free formula until the diarrhea period was over).

The result of the switch? Well, after the first bottle of Pediasure, I had a new baby. The food stayed in and for the first night in over a week, she slept just like a baby. By the end of the second day on Pediasure, my smiling happy baby…
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My Birth Story - The Faith Version

"And I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, and the consuming locust, and the cutting locust, my great army which I sent among you." Joel 2:25
My theme for this month is restoration. As this is also our first birthday month, I cannot but share with you my story and why the verse above is so relevant to me.

For most of my adult life and due to a family tradition, I ring in the new year praying. The prayers start with thanking God for all the blessings of the year about to end and praising Him for the yet unseen blessings of the year ahead. As someone who had fertility struggles, one common theme in my prayers was asking God for my own child.

That was my prayer rolling into New Year's day of 2010 but somehow, the verse in Joel came to mind and I asked God for more than a child. I asked Him for a restoration of everything I had missed/lost in the previous 5 years of not having a child. I asked according to His word and He del…
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CURRENTLY ON MY BOOKSHELF